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3D Animated Promotional Video for MARSS Promerc (Excerpt)

A short excerpt from a video we produced for MARSS Promerc promoting a software project that was designed to combat modern day piracy at sea. Due to the nature of the subject matter, the project itself was confidential and, unfortunately for us, means we can only show specific non-confidential aspects of the final video, such as this non-descript 3D container ship that was animated by our team.

For those who don’t know, creating realistic 3D animation is a very intensive and time-consuming process. On this specific project we worked with a long-term freelance colleague of ours, Mark Harrison, whose VFX credits include the Harry Potter and Star Trek films, to name a few.

Mark started the project by looking for stock 3D models that loosely fit the brief, such as a container ship, and then modified them heavily to suit the needs of our client, reducing time and cost in comparison to making 3D models from scratch. Mark then created bespoke models for the small boat and the pirates, and some other sequences not shown here. After the 3D models were completed, they were textured, lit and then animated in line with the actions in the script. The whole process took around three weeks in man-hours, although the work was spread out over several months.

Because of the amount of time required, 3D animation is usually far costlier than most other types of video, such as live action video or 2D animation. However, in this instance, 3D animation proved to be far more affordable than hiring a container ship and filming a mock pirate attack. In the scheme of things we were able to keep within a fairly modest budget and still deliver an exceptionally high quality result that fulfilled the needs of our client.

Taking your first steps with video

Video doesn’t have to be a challenge.

Forward-thinking businesses can use video in all sorts of innovative ways, including giving customers a taste of their product, providing useful support information to existing customers, or creating stunning promotional videos that can be shared online, played at business exhibitions and shown during presentations.